Matthews’s seminal study of the U.S. Senate during the late 1950s highlights how informal norms, or what he called “folkways,” helped the institution function. Two of these folkways are closely associated with forbearance: courtesy and reciprocity. Courtesy meant, first and foremost, avoiding personal or embarrassing attacks on fellow senators. The cardinal rule, Matthews observed, was for senators to not let “political disagreements influence personal feelings.” This was difficult, for, as one senator put it, “it is hard not to call a man a liar when you know he is one.” But senators viewed
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